Crewing at Scafell Pike Marathon – Salomon Golden Trail National Series

This weekend Train4 Body & Mind returned to the Lake District, one of the favourite places in the UK.

After Irene’s shift at the Manual Therapy Clinic, we travelled down to this beautiful region in Cumbria, England. The trip in the car was great fun (as always), full of snacks, podcasts and music.

After arriving at the Lake District, we headed straight to Keswick to meet up with our friends from the High Terrain Events. This weekend they were organising the Scafell Pike Trail Marathon and the Borrowdale Half Marathon, part of the Salomon Golden Trail National Series. The race starts in Keswick, crosses Borrowdale, and ascends to Scafell Pike summit, England's highest peak. The race course is stunning, passing through natural areas with breathtaking views. The terrain is somewhat challenging with a technical boulder area at the summit not easy to navigate. Nonetheless, it's a fun marathon and definitely worth attempting at least once.

The elite athlete session was held at Kong Running (Keswick) this year due to the unpredictability of the weather in the Lake District. Last year's pre-event had to be cancelled because of strong winds that blew away the tents. Therefore, to avoid repeating the same issue, the location for this year's pre-event was changed.

After discussing and planning all the tasks for the upcoming race, we put the flags and signs at several checkpoints and important intersections along the race course.

After the event was all ready to go for the next morning, we went to our most trusted and loved campsite in the Lake District, Whinfell Campsite. This is a secluded campsite next to the small town of Lorton, the Nort Western part of the Lake District. Once we camped, we decided to sneak a wee run pre-dinner as we were presented with a beautiful evening weather.

For Dinner, we cooked Salmon and some veggies.  Mario ensured everything was well closed so we could keep all the fishy smell for us (Thanks, Mario!). At least we would make sure that if any of the runners got lost the following day, they would be able to track down the checkpoints thanks to our lovely smell.

The forecast for race day was meant to be cloudy, with few light showers. In the end, it turned out to be a constant pouring of water and wind, quite classic of the Lake District.

Mario’s checkpoint was in the little town of Roswaithe, a wonderful area lost in the midst of the Lake District. Soon after arriving, the rain started the party and Mario had to use the only shelter available, the public toilets of the town, (any complaints about the state of the toilets for that date are not related by any means to any members of Train4body&Mind). Mario’s duty there was to stop the traffic when runners were crossing the road. After the half-marathon runners and the lead of the marathon had gone through, Mario ran the course from Roswaithe to Watendlath to take over Irene’s place.

Irene’s checkpoint was located in Watendlath, just at the crossing next to the river. This is a beautiful location, just beside a small town with excellent paths and a tea room to keep you warm if you are hiking nearby.

Irene was lucky with her checkpoint as it was close to a farm and she could stay under a shelter to protect herself from the rain, (As her umbrella's impermeability was comparable to a filter paper )

She also, of course, made sure to have full of snacks with her!

 Even with the adverse weather conditions, both the Borrowdale half-marathon and the Scafell Pike Marathon went smoothly, without significant setbacks. For the Borrowdale half-marathon Ben Plummer, Runar Sather and Ingmar Kloek took the podium respectively and for the females, Courtney Gilfillan smashed the first place, followed by Gillian Carr and Molly Sweetman. For Scafell Pike Marathon the leading males were Ricky Lightfoot (Salomon athlete), Gavin Dale (Sports shoes athlete) and Richard Anderson. Among the females Holly Wootten got a well-deserved first place (even after coming off an injury), followed by Katie Morgan and Cat Wright taking a third place.

After the event was finished we helped to tidying up everything up and then returned to the campsite.

The following day Train4 Body & Mind were planning to do the marathon course as part of their training for the upcoming big event (Ultra de Sanabria). However, the strong winds and fog made it difficult to climb up Scafell and instead, we did the half-marathon route and also climbed one of the classic peaks of Keswick, Cat Bells.

(I leave here our GPX route as I would recommend it to anyone seeking a little challenge).

Our route was stunning, with proper trail fun and a few tricky climbs.

 Throughout the course of Borrowdale, we also collected any flags and signs that were left from the event.

After our run, it started to rain again, and we took shelter in Merienda a lovely cafe and place to eat in Keswick with plenty of gluten-free options.

We went back to Edinburgh the following day after spending a few great days in the Lake District with that feeling of wanting to go back very soon.